garage hadn’t been. The smell of blood had permeated everything, so that he was breathing it in, so that it soaked into his pores. It didn’t matter, he got what he needed and that meant he could take the terror from his woman’s eyes.
He’d been holding it together by a thread, trying not to think that his boy could be sold to some fucking pedophile and what was done to him and his brothers and sisters, would be done to his child. The horror of that was almost more than he could bear. He would do anything to get Zane back. Anything. He’d trade his life for his child. He’d torture and kill if that was what it took.
He had been angry that Scalp had slipped through, hidden inside the apartment’s attic. That was a fuckup that could have cost them. Even Dart and Bruiser hadn’t known he was up there. Living. His assignment had been to kill Dart if Bruiser didn’t and then kill Bruiser. Bridges’s plan wasn’t to sell his daughter. He was tired of no one taking care of him. He wanted to kill Zane in front of her, or sell him so she would suffer every day, but Scalp was to bring her to Bridges.
Scalp should have shot Lana immediately, acquired Breezy and gotten out of there, but he’d been greedy the moment he saw Lana. That wasn’t unusual. Lana had an allure, an appeal that quite a few men found hard to resist. The Swords member thought he could use her, keep her prisoner awhile and then when he was tired of her, scalp her in his signature way. Scalp had died hard.
Steele moved close to the bed. There was a small lamp on an end table and he put it on the lowest setting so that he could see Breezy. He needed the innocence of her. The brightness of her. He looked down at the smooth expanse of her back. Her hair was braided and twisted up onto her head, presumably to keep her cooler.
He loved the line of her buttocks. The first time he’d ever seen her walking away in a pair of tight jeans, his stomach had dropped, his gut tightened into knots and his cock had gone to full attention without his order. He’d been so shocked, he almost went after her right at that moment, but then sanity had taken over.
He’d been taught to be cautious and he’d taken his time watching her. He didn’t think it was possible to really be around Breezy and not fall for her. Not feel that overwhelming emotion that tore him up inside and shredded his heart. He glanced over to the chair where his woman had placed her clothes. They were folded neatly. Perfectly. Her boots were right there against the wall and he picked them up, frowning. There was a hole in one of them.
Fuck. A hole. He had bought her new clothes and put them in the closet at the new house. He had bought sexy lingerie, because he’d been thinking about himself. He hadn’t thought to buy her shoes. Boots. Walking shoes. She needed all kinds of shoes. She hadn’t said a word to him. They were waiting to ride until the next morning when he could get her some decent boots. He sent out a mass text knowing she wouldn’t like it, but he didn’t give a damn.
They had information. They had phones, and Code was so good at mimicking anyone if calls had to be made. Once Code could see a few lines of text, he could replicate style easily. Those phones gave them access to personal information as well as any nicknames they called one another or anything that they might have between them no one else knew about.
He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled off his boots, noting he’d done a good cleaning job. He’d power-sprayed the tread as well as the boot to remove any damning trace of blood. Then they’d made certain to dip the soles in oxygen bleach the Guns and Skull Club had handy. It was a trick they all knew. Regular bleach left behind DNA.
He lined his boots up beside Breezy’s and removed his shirt. It was a new shirt, one he’d packed along with jeans to ensure he could burn his clothes. They all burned their clothes. No one took chances. They made certain those ashes were properly disposed of, just like the burned ashes of the